A desktop defines a set of user preferences, e.g. menu bars as well as their look and feel, applications and shortcuts to files that a user desires to access easily, e.g. through a single mouse click or finger touch. As a consequence, a desktop provides a unique view over one or plural storage spaces of the same user, like for instance the user's private and public cloud storage, the user's local hard disk storage, the user's dropbox storage space, the user's google drive storage space, etc. On a PC or laptop, a desktop definition per user is stored locally, on the hard disk. In a corporate network, a desktop definition per user is stored centrally, on a server. In case the desktop is a corporate desktop, it shall typically also prevent access to some of the storage spaces such as particular cloud storages, the dropbox storage space, etc. for security reasons.
In the above definition of desktop, the term “shortcut to files” must be interpreted broadly to cover any shortcut to directories, subdirectories, documents, data, etc., whether stored on the client device, private or corporate servers, or in a cloud storage environment. It is further noticed that a single user can define more than one desktop stored locally.
Whereas a desktop is a locally stored set of user preferences, applications and shortcuts to files that a user desires to access easily after login on his/her client device, a virtual desktop in the context of the present patent application is a set of user preferences, applications and shortcuts to files that the user desires to access easily, that is stored remotely, in a cloud storage system. A virtual desktop in other words does not reside on any of the user's client devices, e.g. his laptop, tablet PC or smartphone, but is stored in a cloud storage system and pushed back to the user's client device after login. Similarly to traditional desktops, a single user can define more than one virtual desktop stored in the cloud storage system.
One example of such virtual desktop is the Transferable Desktop from ZeroPC, of which a description can be retrieved from the Internet via the URL:
www.zeropc.com/go.htm?src=transfer.html
The Transferable Desktop solution from ZeroPC enables a user to customize one or more virtual desktops, stored in a cloud storage system, and to share one or more of his desktops with other users in the cloud environment.
ZeroPC however does not allow to create virtual desktops per device type. With the introduction of “bring your own device” policies in corporate organizations, different corporate users will desire different virtual desktops depending on the device or devices they are using.
Further, corporate organizations desire to define and control the access policy from one place, such that for instance a corporate IT department can block access to one or some of the public cloud storage providers by disabling access to them through the virtual desktop definitions.
European Patent Application EP 2 357 558 A2 entitled “Independent access to virtual machine desktop content” recognizes in paragraph [0008] the desire of users to use any type of device to access data stored in the cloud, and the complexity of delivering and running virtual desktops on a wide spectrum of devices. EP 2 357 558 thereto proposes an Enhanced Virtual Desktop Management System enabling a user to access its data, applications and settings stored in cloud storage. The Enhanced Virtual Desktop Management System known from EP 2 357 558 uses an API incorporated in the web browser or other third party interface providing access to the user's data without running a virtual desktop (see for instance paragraphs [0042] and [0046]).
It is an objective of the present invention to disclose a method and system for obtaining a virtual desktop that overcomes the above mentioned drawbacks of existing solutions. More particularly, it is an objective of the present invention to disclose a method and system for obtaining upon request of a user a preferred virtual desktop representation for that user and the device type (laptop, tablet PC, smartphone, . . . ) of that user. It is a further objective to obtain upon request of a user a preferred virtual desktop representation for the location (office, home, public location, . . . ) of that user. It is a further objective to obtain upon request of a user a preferred virtual desktop representation considering the type of access (private/corporate) of that user.